How to Get a Cheap Renewal

This page explains the tricks, secrets and our unique method to guaranteeing the cheapest car insurance renewal quote around.

The basics of our brilliant money saving system is as follows:

1. Minimise your liability
2. Compare over 200 insurance companies in less than 3 minutes
3. Get insurance quotes direct from the insurance companies
4. Get cashback on your car insurance

Who  Is Behind Cheap Renewal?

My name is Steven Mather, I am a qualified practising solicitor specialising in legal disputes. I have had deep involvement with insurance companies, from a legal perspective, and understand exactly how they work and operate.

I am also a motorist, a family man (our household has two cars) and for the last 15 years I have been a serial internet entrepreneur with varying success(!). One thing I am overtly passionate about is saving money. All my friends and family know me as the person to turn to get advice about the best deal, whether that be on car insurance, TVs, or anything under the sun.

My expertise lies in the ability to assimilate and comprehend complex information quickly and then relay that information to Joe Public in a readily understandable way, without jargon and in a language they can understand.

Most of my friends and family have 2 cars per household. The meant I was “dealing” with renewals for people constantly. And I kept repeating myself and my four step plan to save money (Reduce, Compare, Go Direct, Get Cashback). And the results speak for themselves. I’ve got my Auntie fully comp insurance for around £30 A YEAR, my young cousin saved £1200 on her renewal, and my wife’s friend saved £80 A MONTH!

There are plenty more testimonials to the system I’ve developed and all of them come with this CAST IRON GUARANTEE

IF WE CANT GET A CHEAPER QUOTE THAN YOUR RENEWAL, WE’LL GIVE YOU CASHBACK UNTIL IT IS CHEAPER!

First Things First. A Bit of Honesty.

This site monetises pretty much all of the links to car insurance companies, car insurance comparison sites and the adverts at the top. This means that everytime you click a link and buy a product, we get paid commission.

I’ll be honest with you, it ranges from £2.00 for a quote with Go Compare up to approximately £70 for a new policy taken out with Direct Line.

But for me, its not all about the money. While I’m obviously hoping to make some(!), for me Cheap Renewal is all about SAVING MONEY and in particular saving you, my friend, money on your car insurance.

Only certain of the insurance companies will let me offer “cashback” to you and so you’ll need to read the terms and conditions of the cashback system first. But, assuming you meet the criteria, here’s my promise: If you do not get a cheaper renewal through this site, I’ll give you the money I would have earned, so that it is cheaper FOR YOU.

I don’t think you can say fairer than that.

Right, lets move on to the first step of my brilliant car insurance renewal money saving system, shall we?

Before we start – a word of warning about price

One of the most crucial things to remember about car insurance is that while  getting a cheap renewal tends to be the most important consideration for most people, actually the PURPOSE of buying insurance is to ensure that if anything were to happen to your car (such as theft, or an accident) you want your insurance policy to pay out.

Time and time again do I see or hear of people that have had an accident and their insurance company fail to pay out, pay out a very small sum, or take donkey’s years to deal with it. Some people don’t automatically get a Courtesy Car, dont get cover for your own injuries, don’t get help arranging for the car to be fixed, don’t get market value for the car, don’t get cover for sat navs or audio equipment, dont get dont get.

So, the key is to balance the best possible price with the best coverage. Defaqto are the leading company for analysing car insurance providers and give car insurance companies a rating out of 5 taking into account 45 different criteria. I’ve studied Defaqto’s guides, read the insurance companies literature, used the car insurance websites, and listened to what people have said to come up with the definitive guide of insurance companies. Some are cheap, some are not so cheap, but we’ll tell you so you can make an informed decision on whether to go for the cheapest car insurance quote, the most comprehensive policy, or somewhere in between.

Finally, I am not authorised or regulated by the FSA. Any content provided by this website should be taken as is and not relied upon in making a decision to purchase. YOU MUST MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS. I cannot give personal advice to you, and I only offer my own general opinions on insurance. My opinions are my own and are not supported by any qualifications relating to insurance.

STEP 1: Minimise Your Liability, Ensure The Right Cover

Unless you’re under 20, most people these days buy Comprehensive Car Insurance. But what does that cover? As Defaqto shows, the differences between two policies can be huge. Some cheap comprehensive quotes do not inlcude a new car if your car is written off, they do not include sat nav cover, you might not get physiotherapy cover if you’re injuried. This list goes on. Therefore, when comparing quotes, you must also compare the Policy Coverage. Not many people do this, but the best way is to read the official Policy Summary, as this cuts out the marketing nonsense and presents the basics of the policy. You can also consult the Defaqto website for easy comparison of policy coverage.

The first thing to realise is that insurance premiums are supposed to be tailored to take into account the risk you are to an insurance company.

For example, if you do 50,000 miles and your friend only does 10,000 miles per year, then you are on the road FIVE TIMES more often than your friend and no matter how safe your driving might be that means an increased risk of an incident occuring.

Example 2: If you drive a Ferrari, your car is more desirable to steal (and, actually, vandalise) than say an Toyota Yaris, and so even if you only drove your ferrari 100 miles a year, the risk for the insurance company remains high.

Example 3: Job and social stereotyping is only allowed in insurance products (everywhere else its called discrimination!). A vicar is perceived to be safer at driving (and less of a risk) than, say, a marketing manager (who might have a tendency to be more flamboyant and therefore faster at driving and less responsible). Have kids? You’re likely to drive more responsibly. Commute? More accidents happen in rush hour than in any other time of day. Single and Male? Well you’re *obviously* a boy racer (!!).

The key to minimising your risk is to answer the questions posed by insurance companies carefully, conservatively but always honestly (because if you’re not honest, you might as well not buy the insurance, because they are likely to avoid paying out if the need arises).

Its often difficult to know the difference between say a Cafe Worker, Cafe Staff or a Coffee Shop Assistant, but always tend to the higher, most respected position you can. So if you are a supervisor in Starbucks, say so – it looks more responsible. If you are in accounts and manage other staff, say you’re an accounts manager rather than an cashier.

Job changes usually only make a few pounds or pennies difference, but this is all about saving the most on your car insurance.

Regarding mileage, I once dealt with a claim where the driver’s policy was for 12,000 miles per year and at the time of the accident he had actually done 18,000 miles (they learned this from his MOT certificate). The insurance company said that this was “material non disclosure” and so sought to avoid the policy (in English, because he had not told them about his increased mileage, they had not accounted for the additional risk, and so did not want to pay out the insurance.

Therefore, the advise has to be to tell the insurance company the minimal mileage you are likely to do (although the difference of 1000 miles is perhaps £1), but do not say 10,000 if you know you’ll do 15,000. The easiest way to calculate your mileage is to look at last years MOT certificate. An alternative is to work out what miles you do per day to work and back home, then multiple it by 500 (to cover trips out at the weekend etc). Obviously, if you’re driving from Lands End to John o Groats every day then you might want to buy an aeroplane.

To conclude: The questions posed by insurance companies are there to allow them to price the perceived risk. If you answer the questions carefully, you can start on your way to reducing your potential liability.

Step 2: Use Comparison Sites to Compare Prices

Car Insurance price comparison sites (also known as price aggregators) are a great new invention of the last decade and yet are usually a pain in the backside! Most people hate the amount of questions, pages, emails, phonecalls and junk mail you get after filling in a form for some quotes.

And yet, car insurance price comparison sites are an essential tool in finding a cheap renewal for your car insurance.

All of the current car insurance companies make assumptions when giving you a quote. This explains why on one comparison site you might get a quote, with the same company, for completely different prices.

In order to maximise the savings on your car insurance renewal, you should use the following price comparison sites in this order:

1. Cheap Renewal Quote – Click “Get A Quote“
2. MoneySuperMarket
3. GoCompare
4. Compare The Market
5. Confused.com

Using the above order, you will be comparing over 200 car insurance companies, and almost 85% of the market.

Why these sites and why this order?

Cheap Renewal’s quote system is powered by Quotezone and compares over 90 insurance companies in one very quick and easy form.

Moneysupermarket’s car insurance renewal quote system again compare roughly 90 car insurance providers and, because of its size, often has exclusive deals with certain insurers to try and get you the best price.

Go Compare, despite having the most annoying TV adverts in the world, are actually pretty good when comparing car insurance quotes. However, they sometimes are not 100% accurate when you try and buy the insurance, so be careful.

Compare the Market and Confused.com add a few more insurers to the mix.

If you really want to go the whole hog, you might also want to try: Money Expert, Beat That Quote, uSwitch and TescoCompare, but we’re pretty sure that the best deals will be on through Cheap Renewal.

STEP 3: DONT STOP NOW, GO DIRECT!

Simply doing a search on a couple of car insurance comparison sites is not going to cut the mustard when it comes to getting the best possible quote.

It is an absolute must that you get a quote direct with Aviva and Direct Line.

Until the end of November, Aviva are offering 2 months free car insurance and 15% off online quotes through Cheap Renewal (no need for a voucher code).  Thats over 30% discount and is an offer not to be missed.

Direct Line are also the king of direct car insurance quotes. Our special link will give you 15% off immediately. Direct Line are very good and for certain types of drivers, very cheap.

You should definitely obtain a quote from both of these insurance companies before starting to complement your decision.